In MLB Draft, injuries work in Sox’ favor

BOSTON — The Red Sox don’t own a top-10 pick in Thursday’s draft the way they did a season ago. But Boston may still be able to get high-end talent.The Sox will pick 26th and 33rd, the latter coming courtesy...

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By
TIM BRITTON
Posted May. 31, 2014 @ 8:26 pm

BOSTON — The Red Sox don’t own a top-10 pick in Thursday’s draft the way they did a season ago. But Boston may still be able to get high-end talent.

The Sox will pick 26th and 33rd, the latter coming courtesy of the Yankees’ signing Jacoby Ellsbury last winter. That’s an area of the draft Boston is accustomed to selecting in, and the Red Sox have found plenty of talent there. Blake Swihart was the 26th pick in 2011. Henry Owens was the 36th pick and Jackie Bradley Jr. the 40th later that same year.

One of the ways the Red Sox have capitalized on drafting in that area — and by often having multiple picks in that range — is to take chances on players whose stock has fallen because of injury. Bradley is a prime example, having fallen from a surefire first-round pick to the sandwich round because of a subpar junior season that included a wrist injury.

But he’s not alone. Triple-A right-hander Anthony Ranaudo went from the consensus best college pitcher in his class to the 39th pick in 2010 because of an elbow injury that derailed his junior-year performance. Pawtucket third baseman Garin Cecchini was a likely first-round pick out of high school before tearing his anterior cruciate ligament early in his senior season. Boston selected him in the fourth round.

To be fair, grabbing those kinds of players deeper in the draft is harder now under the new collective bargaining agreement. Ranaudo and Cecchini, in particular, maintained strong bonus demands even as their performance suffered, but Boston was willing to pony up the necessary cash to sign them. Ranaudo received a bonus larger than the eighth pick in his draft, Cecchini’s was higher than multiple first-round picks. Stricter spending regulations mean teams can’t exceed their slot recommendation with impunity anymore.

Still, what the Red Sox have capitalized on in the past could be especially instructive this season given the number of highly ranked prospects who have suffered injuries. East Carolina right-hander Jeff Hoffman and UNLV right-hander Erick Fedde are both top-10 talents who have undergone Tommy John surgery this season. TCU lefty Brandon Finnegan has missed substantial time with an elbow injury. Virginia outfielder Derek Fisher, one of the draft class’ most advanced college bats, broke his wrist earlier this season.

That’s a quartet of players who, without injury, almost certainly wouldn’t have lasted until No. 26. Now the odds are one or more will be there for Boston.

Bradley, Ranaudo and Cecchini can all sympathize with what those prospects are enduring right now.

“It’s definitely bad timing,” Bradley said, remembering back to his junior year. “You always think about [your draft stock], just because, if you were healthy, maybe teams would have looked at you a lot sooner or wouldn’t have passed up on you.”

Ranaudo recalled the urgency of that season — of proving himself worthy of the preseason hype — likely forcing him back to the mound before he was ready.

“Looking back on it, I put way too much pressure on myself,” he said. “I tried to rush back first and then tried to be the Friday guy on a team that was doing really well. Instead of getting my reps underneath me, I tried to rush back and be that guy.”

“You want to be there for your team,” said Bradley, who won consecutive national championships at South Carolina his sophomore and junior years. “I was able to contribute a little bit [junior year], but it wasn’t the same because I didn’t give [my wrist] time to really strengthen back up.”

The circumstances were different for Cecchini as a high schooler. When he tore up his knee early that senior season, he thought the draft went out the window.

“I can remember that feeling today,” he said this week at McCoy Stadium. “That’s the worst feeling ever, when I felt like six pops in my knee. It felt like all your dreams just went down the drain.

“I was worried about never playing baseball again.”

Cecchini figured he’d be honoring his commitment to LSU for the next three years. After undergoing surgery on his knee, he did allow a thought to sneak into his head: “Man, I lost so much money.”

He was just happy that his pre-draft workout with the Red Sox occurred two days before the injury, making it one of the few he didn’t have to cancel. That, according to Cecchini, is “the only reason the Red Sox drafted me.”

“All you can do is hope that somebody gives you a chance, and that you can prove to them you’re still the pitcher you believe you are,” Ranaudo said.

“All you can really do is rely on what you have done in the past and knowing that, it’s just a short-term injury in the long scheme of things,” said Bradley. “Tough times only last for a little while.”

Overcoming that adversity made being drafted all the more special. Ranaudo found out after the plane ride home to LSU, the day after the Tigers’ season ended. Bradley was with his family, who he had to keep telling to calm down when the earlier selections of Archie Bradley and Jed Bradley elicited premature cheers.

“It was like a draft full of Bradleys,” he said with a smile now.

“I remember exactly where I was and who was at my house,” said Cecchini. “We started jumping around, which, I shouldn’t have been jumping around. It was crazy.”

From the perch of the present, with Bradley in the majors and Ranaudo and Cecchini knocking on the doorstep, the pre-draft travails seem trifling.